“It is great to win when you can’t make a shot. You have to be happy with the win. One thing that has been constant is rebounding, and our rebounding in the second half was excellent. We turned the ball over tonight, which we hadn’t done. I’m very disappointed in that. We had some first game jitters for our first-year players. Someone forgot to tell Prairie View that they weren’t supposed to win tonight. You have to give them credit. You have to shoot when you are open, but you have to make them play a little bit of defense. We showed our youth tonight, at times. I thought the other team wanted to play more than we did tonight, which is unacceptable. We are very fortunate to come out with a win. Our second half defense was great. We finally found a group of five guys that could defend. Our lack of mental focus to the scouting report is disappointing.

On Not being ready to play

“We practiced Saturday and Sunday as good as we have all year. The problem is we were overconfident without reason. You don’t just roll out the balls and win because you have more talent. You have to go out and defend and rebound. The other team practices as well. All that matters is who executes better. It doesn’t matter what conference they are from or the name on the jersey. There is no question that some guys thought we would show up, say boo, and they would go home. With that being said, it was a good learning experience for us. We are only going to be as good as we play and not what people say. People said the Bengals weren’t going to win, but they already have more wins than people said. “

On Paying Smaller Teams with Gates and Toyloy

“Their game plan is to spread us out and bring those guys out on the floor. You have to reap the benefits. They are smaller and quicker but we are bigger so you should pound them on the glass. You have to pass the ball inside out. Steve had four turnovers, but you have to pass the ball. Steve is a good player, and he knows that. It could have been a lot worse. Our guys could have gotten frustrated. That is why Rashad Bishop is so important to our team. He knows how to stay solid.“

On Vaughn not starting the second half

“I wanted the guys who were playing the best, in my opinion. On our team, everybody is going to earn minutes. Playing for me, if you earn playing time it doesn’t matter what grade you are in. I play the best five guys. Larry Davis in the first half, I thought he played better. That is the advantage of having a bench. Vaughn was 0-6 with two fouls. He responded. Deonta is a great kid, but he has to give us better leadership. He has to make sure these guys are ready to play. Before the game when coaches aren’t in there, he has to make sure they are ready to play. Upsets happen in college basketball.”

On Lance Stephenson’s debut

“He was a nervous wreck. He’ll get better. I have to make sure he isn’t putting too much pressure on himself. When we were struggling, he was the one guy getting visibly more physical. You could see his frustration and his desire to win. I have to teach him how to channel that and there is no such thing as a ten point shot. He was trying to do everything himself, which is good and bad.”

“I say we came in not ready to play. We knew what was on the scouting report. We didn’t expect them to be as physical and as good as they were tonight.”

On shooting threes

“We got a lot of shooters on the perimeter. We just weren’t making good passes and were forcing shots. We changed it up in the second half and got some good shots. We took some bad shots trying to be heroes.”

On starting on bench

“I have to bring my intensity up and play harder. I have to do what I’m supposed to do as a leader. I got more focused. Early on, I was nonchalant about it and wasn’t focused. I was just coming out and playing good defense. I gave one of their best shooters a three to open the game. I should have started better than that.”

On taking over when struggling

“I felt like I didn’t need to, but they gave me some shots. Great shooters always keep shooting. I shot the ball terrible tonight, but I kept shooting and hoped some would fall.”

On Lance being frustrated

“That is for any freshman that comes in. Your first couple of games is the hardest for you. I just have to talk to him and tell him how it will be for the rest of the season. He doesn’t have to force anything, and just let it come naturally.”

“We didn’t get prepared before the game. We kind of sat around, and came out sluggish. We weren’t ready, and was just going through the motions.”

Prairie View A&M

Byron Rimm II, Head Coach

Opening Statement

“It was a hard fought game. We’ve been focused the last couple of weeks with our practices and scrimmages. I was happy for three quarters of the game. I think we took some bad shots and had poor rebounding.They pretty much outrebounded us pretty bad the second half. Our conditioning came into play with some pretty bad shots. I take my hat off to Cincinnati because they have some great players. They did a great job with controlling and staying poised when we had them on the wall. I’m happy with what we had. I wish we could have come out with a win. Our guys were really disappointed and they are hungry. I believe our team will learn a lot from this experience.”

On first half

“We had great ball movement. We got it down to Darnell and he did what he was supposed to do. He’s a great passer for only being 6-foot-6. He led our conference in rebounds and blocks last year. We got the ball down, and made some open shots. We missed some key lay-ups, which I think was due to fatigue. “